Unspeakable

Hey, everyone

She smacked the camera

Where do i begin? This week was unspeakable for two reasons. First reason is because I don't really know how to describe my feelings to you, and that might be good because of the second reason why my week is unspeakable; Due to some situations we are having with one of my favorite investigators, Jeremiah. In order to keep him safe I wont go into detail, all that has happened with him. He is doing great! He has felt the Spirit of God. He is changing me. That will have to suffice I guess. If you want to know more into detail you will have to email me personally.

So, this week was AWESOME! I am at the point where i love being here so much, that i am even going to miss having failed appointments and having investigators hide from us! I love being a missionary. 

Angela is also doing great! She has some bad voices around her telling her a lot of things, and Satan is really trying to stop her from coming to church, but we are smarter than Satan. We woke up early on Sunday to go to her house and pick her up for church! She came and now has so many solid good friends! We were pretty happy about that. 

We went on exchanges with Akweteman this week, which was great! I spent the day with Elder Wunderlich, and we had a good time. Half of our day was spent trying to get their stubborn baptismal font filled up. We tried three times, but ran into random problems each time and couldn't get it filled up. 

Sunday night, we were on our way home and started talking to a super nice Muslim man from the Bronx. At length, our conversation came to the subject of how much money we spend on average a day, and we told him we usually spend about 10-12 cedis, which is about 3 dollars, and he just looked at us with the shocked/concerned look on his face and said, "that is just not enough! Come take some stuff!" And he took us into his shop where he sells bulk goods from Sam's club and gave us some coco puff and fruit loops and some cranberry juice! Jack pot! 

Today was a solid day too. We went to Achimota and played a game of Ultimate Frisbee, which made me think of Parker even more haha. I also brought my gloves and taught a Ghanian kid how to play catch. He loved it! 

I am so happy to be here, and to serve my Master. This is the greatest thing I've ever done. I love my Savior. His gospel is true! 

Have a great week y'all! 

Elder Eldredge  

Weekly Planning

Baseball has come to Ghana

Miracles

Hey, everyone,

This week was so good! We got to meet a lot of new people, and some are really solid. The weather was great all week with overcast almost everyday and one day was pretty rainy so walking around with umbrellas and no sweat dripping down my face felt pretty good. We were supposed to have a baptism this week, but turns out Wisdom, our candidate is still 8 years old lol so we technically werent supposed to teach him. It was still fun to teach him though, he is a great kid. 

The first half of our week was a little slow. We had multi-zone conference on Wednesday, and some good friends gave their "dying" testimonies which was so so so weird to me. A dying testimony is the last testimony given by a missionary at his/her last zone meeting. Elder Mantz, my former companion is Swedru gave his and I just felt weird the whole time. I dread the day i give my dying testimony.

Thursday, we went to get a free dental check up close to my first area. There were some people from the states doing a service project and they gave all the missionaries free check ups. Almost all of the people there served in Ghana on their missions. I only knew one of them but it was fun to talk to them about mission stories. Plus. they gave me a sweet Spongebob tooth brush. Score. 

Friday and Saturday were incredibly busy trying to make up for all the time we lost in Wednesday and Thursday. We saw the Lord's hand all over the place! We met some super prepared people! 

Miracles:

Miracle 1: We went to try to teach an investigator, but she wasn't home. We knew of a guy in her area who was spreading a lot of terrible rumors about the church and scaring a lot of the community. So, we decided that we would try to contact his house and talk to him so he could know what we really talk about. We went to the door we thought was his, and when the door opened, we were invited in and started talking to a young man. He told us that he wants to change his life and be baptized and asked us how he can do that.... My jaw was on the floor. We went there expecting to face an anti-Mormon, and got the complete opposite. His name is Greg. He was on his way to church yesterday when he had to go to the hospital because his aunt went into labor. so next week.

Miracle 2: We were walking through Nima, which is a really big Zongo (Muslim community) and we got stopped by a man named Jeremiah. He is from Burkina Faso, and doesn't speak English super well. Luckily he lives right next to our Stake President, who is from Ivory Coast. Anyways, we contacted him on Saturday, and he came to church! We taught him later that day with the stake president which was great! We found out that he grew up a Muslim, but both of his parents passed away not too long ago, and since then has had big questions about where they are and if he will see them again or not. He did a lot of searching through the Quran, but couldn't get what he was looking for, so when he saw us he said he had a strong feeling that we could help him. Right now we have to meet with him in secret because he is living with Muslims and if they find out they will stop everything and possibly shun him. But he said that if he comes to know that what we are saying is true, he will have the courage to talk to his family about his religion change. We could, and he more specifically Jeremiah could use some prayers! 

This email is too long, so i'll cut it off here. 

I love it here! I know i am in the right place. Have a good week! 

Congrats to Parker and Amber! Hope you too have a great day without me ;) Can't wait to meet you Amber. 

Happy late Father's day to all you dads!

Love,

Elder Eldredge 

Earnest

Half missionary, half punching bag

Goodbye Elder Mantz

Innovation

A free shower

The Middle of a Drug Deal

Hey everyone,

this week was really rewarding, and our area is doing great. The days are going faster and faster and faster. I can hardly remember what happened this week, but i have nothing but great feelings about it.

Gyan was supposed to be confirmed this past Sunday, but i made a rookie mistake and left his baptism and confirmation record at our apartment and Bishop told us that we will have to do it this coming Sunday. I felt so bad for Gyan. Sorry Gyan. We will make sure he gets confirmed along with Bro Wisdom this coming Sunday.

We started teaching a young sister named Angela recently who is doing really well right now. We contacted her mother a couple months ago when i was with Elder Udo, but she owns a small restaurant and is super busy all the time, so we started talking to her daughter. At the beginning of our lessons with her, she was having a hard time understanding what we were teaching and we really struggled knowing what to teach her so she could get it. After we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we read with her from the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 3:5-12 which talks all about Jesus Christ and his mission here on Earth. We were going to share the reading by taking one verse each and taking turns, but she loved it so much that she just read it all by herself. The Spirit was strong, and you could tell she definitely felt it. From there on she started getting it a lot easier. She kept her commitments and her faith has noticeably increased since that day. Sometimes i take for granted what i have, and sometimes i forget how great of a blessing it is that i get to read from the Book of Mormon and study about the Savior from it every day. There is so much power in the Book of Mormon to change people and to feel the Spirit. I am going to do my best to never take for granted God's blessings in my life.

Mom wanted to know the funniest thing that happened this week, and there were many so it will be hard to put one down but i will try. On Thursday, we were walking through the heart of our area where there are tons of small pathways and closely packed houses and TONS of people. As we walked down a narrow alley way we had to squeeze past two guys, who just so happened to be right in the middle of a drug deal... we got really scared at first, but then they just looked at us, laughed and greeted us. We tried to act like we didn't see anything, and walked away holding in our laughter until we got around the corner and then we let it out. Ghanaians are really nice people :) was that funny? or have i been out too long?

We finished off the week at the Munro's house (our office couple). They fed us sloppy joes and milk shakes and finished it off with some fudge brownies. I basically inhaled the sloppy joes they were so good. By the time i got to my milk shake i looked like a two year old slurping on a straw trying to get the last bit of chocolate out of the bottom of my cup with my face covered in sloppy joe sauce. No shame. I think i might die from the food when i get home.

Hope you all have a great week! The Gospel is so true and i love it here!

LOVE YOU!

ELDER ELDREDGE

Wild One

Hey everyone,

Go Gyan

This week was a wild ride! We were so busy with exchanges and instructions, that my mind is blurry. Hopefully i will remember some things that happened.

I guess to start off, we had a baptism this week! Gyan got baptized on Sunday. He is a sweet kid. He is 14 and he invited some of his friends to come haha it was cool.

Elder Nilsson and i spent half of our week with different missionaries going on exchanges. Unfortunately for Elder Nilsson, he had to go to the other area each time because he doesn't know our area well enough yet. Our area has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks though, so i think elder Nilsson has some sort of magic touch. Super grateful he is my comp.

We didn't find time to follow up on the president this week.. hopefully we will check on him this week.

Rosemond, our recent convert is doing great! She got called as the young women secretary and is preparing to go to the temple! She is really excited to go and has been doing her family history. We hope to be able to go to the temple either this week or next week with her.

I got to go on an exchange with my former companion, Elder Sakala! He is awesome. I learned a ton from him and his example. He goes home at the end of the transfer which is crazy! i feel like i was just companions with him, but it has been 17 months! Time is going too fast.

We found a lot of really cool people this week and were able to set some baptismal dates. We are looking like we might be able to meet our goal of three baptisms this month. Keep your fingers crossed.

We proselyted with the stake president this Saturday. He was baptized when he was 18 and due to some health issues was not able to serve a mission, but he takes every opportunity he can to go out with the missionaries. We had some great lessons with him and it was cool to see his diligence in trying to be like Christ.

Things are looking really great here in our area. I always get excited to go out and see our friends and teach them and help them. Life is great as a missionary. I am going to enjoy it while i can!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Eldredge 

My Guy Wisdom